The Power of the Spirit
by PuffKane93
Summary: What if Ichigo awakened his powers before Rukia was wounded, and without her giving him her power? What if his zanpakuto became completely different without the influence of Rukia's power? My summary is crap, I know. Companion fic now up.
1. Prologue

This is my first time writing fanfic, so it's probably not the best, but oh well. I mostly did this because I wanted to see how Ichigo would develop his power if he awakened it himself rather than having Rukia give her power to him.

Rukia wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't seen it with her own two eyes. The human teenager before her had broken through the binding spell she had placed on him after he had insulted her drawings. As she watched she saw something even more unbelievable. His natural spirit energy was so strong that he not only broke through her Bakudo, he accidentally forced himself from his body as well.

Then came the most shocking part. As she stood there, unable to look away from what she believed to be impossible, his chain of fate disintegrated. For one brief moment she thought he had somehow killed himself with his effort to break free of her kido, but then she felt his reiatsu. She watched as the loose reishi in the air was drawn in, forming around him as his human clothes disintegrated. When the cloud of reishi finally fell she couldn't help but gasp, because where his human clothes had once been he now wore a shihakusho!

"What the hell," she said out loud, unable to fully comprehend what she was seeing. Rukia was right to be confused, because as far as she knew, she had just watched a human become a shinigami.

"Hey you", she heard him say, "Shinigami".

At long last she felt the shock begin to wear off, and when she finally found her voice she managed to say, "My name is not shinigami, it is Rukia Kuchiki".

"I see", he said, "in that case, my name is Ichigo Kurosaki".

I will most likely be doing more in the future, and Ichigo will (probably) learn the name of his zanpakuto in the next chapter. Keep in mind that in this new reality Ichigo does NOT have his powers awakened by Rukia. He awakens them himself when he breaks out of her Bakudo. That being said, Please read and review. I appreciate input but no flaming please.


	2. Chapter 1

Well, here's the first real part of the story line. As I said before, I wanted to see how Ichigo would develop his powers if they were awakened by him rather than by Rukia giving him her power. That being said, let's see how this all plays out. By the way, for the purposes of my story Ichigo will not have Zangetsu as his zanpakuto. I used Google translate to get the name of the zanpakuto I'll have him using.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. If I did then I would definitely not be so damned broke all the time.

He briefly wondered how he had managed to break out of that kido as the dark haired woman who claimed to be a shinigami had called it. Before that train of thought could leave the station he was surrounded by what looked to him like a violently spinning cloud of dust. He didn't have time to so much as sneeze before the cloud fell and dissipated. Strangely, once the cloud was gone he felt like something had changed, and sure enough he looked down to see that he wasn't wearing his street clothes anymore. He swore silently as he realized that he was now wearing a black uniform much like the one the shinigami woman was wearing.

While he was looking down at himself in shock he noticed that he now had a zanpakuto in the shape of a katana pushed through the sash of the uniform. He quickly looked over at the shinigami to see her standing there, mouth hanging open, as her eyes switched between him and the floor behind him. When he looked he was surprised, but strangely not worried, to see himself lying face down on the floor. He finally looked back at the woman who was still staring in shock. She wasn't making any noise, but he guessed she was probably flipping tables in her mind.

For the sake of ending the silence, which had just started to be awkward, he spoke up, saying, "hey you, shinigami".

After a moment she finally recovered enough to say to him, "my name is not shinigami, it is Rukia Kuchiki".

"I see", he said, "in that case, my name is Ichigo Kurosaki".

Just as the two finished introducing themselves an earsplitting howl reverberated around the area. At the same time, Ichigo heard a voice in the back of his mind, and rather than be the hard-headed teenager he was, he decided to listen to it. He rushed at the creature that was the source of the unearthly howl, drawing his zanpakuto as he went. His reiatsu rose as he did what the voice, which he instinctively recognized as belonging to his zanpakuto, told him to do. With it being late at night, he somehow knew that the power of his blade would be at its highest.

Ichigo found himself standing in the street facing the creature, which he had learned earlier was called a hollow, with his zanpakuto drawn and pointed forwards. He proceeded to thrust the sword out to his right, before bringing it horizontally in front of himself. He then spoke the words that would allow him the full power of his sword.

"Strike in the night", He began.

"Yami no Ryu (Dragon of darkness)", He finished. Ichigo risked a glance over at Rukia, and he chuckled to himself when he saw her fall flat on her ass in shock, apparently having also gone catatonic as he could hear nothing from her despite it having become completely silent without warning.

He turned his attention back to the hollow just in time to see it charge. He raised his sword as the name and essence of his first technique were made known to him. He aimed the tip of his blade at the hollows mask as he said the name of the technique.

"Kage no yari (Shadow spear)", He said, as an almost imperceptible burst of darkness leaped from his blade. No sooner had he announced the attack than the hollows mask suddenly split in two, with the hollows body dissolving almost immediately afterwards. Satisfied with a job well done he nodded to himself, then sealed and sheathed his blade. He left the street and went back over to where his body was lying on the floor of the house. Rukia was sitting on her ass, still unable to form words, gaping at what she had just seen.

"Are you going to stay out here catching flies all night or are you leaving", he asked as he re-entered his body. Ichigo knew full well that he couldn't let her stay because no one would be able to see her. "If you're leaving then leave", he said, "I'm going back to what I was doing before you decided to walk through my wall, in other words, sleeping".

Well, that's it for chapter one. Reviews are welcome, and I always appreciate a good suggestion or two. Don't forget to tell me what you think of the zanpakuto I gave to Ichigo. I think it suits his attitude a little better, but that's just my opinion.


	3. Chapter 2

**Well, here I am again, sitting here hammering out the second official chapter of my first fanfic. In case nobody figured it out yet, the first page with only a few sentences was actually a prologue meant to introduce the basic structure of the story line. I'm just going to take a moment to say that if any of you who're reading this want to send in some ideas of your own then just pm me, and if I do incorporate somebody's idea then I will give credit to your pen name, though if I'm asked for secrecy I will, of course, credit it to anonymous. Now that the formalities are out of the way, it's time to give the old creative muscle a stretch.**

Chapter two

"GOOD MORNING, ICHIGO!" Ichigo started, opened his eyes, and moved just in time to avoid the dark shape that suddenly crashed onto his bed.

"WHAT THE HELL DAD, WHY CAN'T YOU JUST WAKE ME UP LIKE A NORMAL PARENT", Ichigo shouted as he punched his father's lights out. He groaned and shook his head, then he suddenly remembered and said, "Hey wait a minute, what the hell happened to Karin and Yuzu's injuries!"

"Huh? What injuries", asked Isshin as he got up from where he was lying after his son had tried to pound his face down his throat.

"It's a miracle", he exclaimed once they were outside the house, "truck plows right into our house and nobody got so much as a scratch!"

"What's more amazing is the fact that not one of us woke up when it happened", Karin deadpanned.

A little while later. . .

"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGOOOOOOOOOOO", a loud mouthed and annoying teen screamed.

Ichigo shut him up by sidestepping and clotheslining the poor guy, and walked on to his class, acting like this was an everyday occurrence, which unfortunately it was. He was about to enter the classroom when he heard someone else speak.

"Hey Ichigo", said the new voice. Ichigo turned to see one of his other friends standing there, nose stuck to the cell phone he always had.

"Hey Mizuiro", said Ichigo, then, as an afterthought, added, "hey Keigo".

After they all sat down in their seats Keigo spoke up, "Hey Ichigo, I hear a truck crashed into your house last night, was anyone hurt?"

"No", Ichigo replied, "but it's a big mess, it'll take forever to clean up".

"Want some help", asked a new voice.

Ichigo looked up and a sweat drop formed as he replied, "Hey Chad, I appreciate the offer but no thanks".

At that Keigo continued going on about the situation until, "Excuse me, are you Ichigo? I'll be sitting next to you from now on, my name is Rukia".

Ichigo turned his head so fast his neck cracked, and when he recognized who had spoken, he jumped out of his seat, stammering, "I-it's you, w-what the hell are you doing here?"

As he stood there stammering she held out her hand, palm up, and Ichigo looked down to see a message written there saying, "if you make a scene you are so dead".

Several minutes later, outside Karakura High School.

"So what the hell are you doing here, midget", he asked, "I thought you went back to that soul society place you told me about".

"I can't go back, I'm here on assignment, and I'm to stay here for the remainder of the month", she replied, "On a different note, I could use your assistance for now".

"Why do you need my help", he asked, noticing as he did that she was putting on a strange glove, for what purpose he didn't know, though he had a feeling he was about to find out whether he wanted to or not, and find out he did.

"You'll know soon enough", she said, right before she moved in and smacked Ichigo upside the head.

`What the', he realized he wasn't lying on the ground like he thought he was. He did look down though, and realized that he _was_ lying on the ground, while also floating three meters in the air. He dropped back to the ground as Rukia went to move his body. She hid it in a storage room, but when she came back out she was dressed in the black robes he had seen her in the night before. He looked down and realized he was wearing the same robes, though in his own size.

"Let's go", she said, and suited actions to words by walking away. Ichigo decided to go with her, if only so he could get some answers.

"So where are we going", he asked. He wasn't expecting much of an answer, so he was surprised when she told him they were going to a park where it was believed the soul of a child was about to be attacked by a hollow.

A few minutes later they arrived at the park, and no sooner had they shown up than the soul appeared from around some playground equipment, a large hollow chasing him. Before Rukia could so much as twitch Ichigo had already jumped into action, sprinting over to put himself between the boy and the hollow, moving so fast that he surprised himself. Once he was firmly in place he drew his zanpakuto and leaped at the hollow. He was in the hollows face before it could react, and before it could attack he had already sliced its mask in half, disintegrating it. He went over to the kid and gently tapped his head with the pommel of his zanpakuto, sending him to the soul society.

"That was an excellent konso, Ichigo", Rukia told him, "and I can't help but admire the way you put yourself at risk to save that child".

"Eh, anyone with any sense of decency would have done the same thing", he said back. "Now let's get back to class, and I hope for your sake that nobody went in that storage room where you left my body". With their job done for the moment, they decided to return to class.

**Well, this marks the end of the official chapter two. As some of you might have guessed this story will mostly follow canon Bleach, with some parts changed to reflect the difference between how my story begins and how canon Bleach begins. I will try to update as often as possible but my updates WILL be randomly timed and basically unpredictable. By the way, I have a tendency to develop severe writers block without warning so don't get upset if it takes a while to get an update out. On a different note I have two more techniques planned for Ichigo's zanpakuto, but if anybody has an idea for another darkness-based attack just pm me. You already know his first attack, and I've got one more for his shikai, as well as a final technique for his inevitable bankai. If I do get a good suggestion then there's a good chance I'll work it in somewhere as long as it's not something that Ichigo wouldn't use. With all that being said, Hope you all like the new chapter, and keep your eyes open.**


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